Cat on a Hot Tin Rooftop
by PsychoChick
Summary: A woman cat burglar is on the loose. Sequel to Rooftop Ponderings


Cat on a Hot Tin Rooftop   
PsychoChick   
  
Disclaimer: Weiss Kreuz is not mine, it belongs to Weiss.(And a couple other people/places/things that I don't know about)   
Note: Yeah, the title's a stretch. And yeah, it's corny. But blast it, I couldn't think of anything else!   
  
  
  
The area was dark. Which was just the way she liked it. Hefting her pack up after herself, she slipped on the heavy container, shifting it around until it was settled.   
Grabbing a lock pick, she made short work of the roof door. Once inside, she turned a nozzle on her pack, spraying the walls of the stairwell. It wouldn't be very effective, with stone, but it would buy her time, if she needed it.   
Creeping along a wall, she quietly entered an apartment. Sifting through the belongings of the tenants, occasionally stopping to make sure they were still asleep, she concluded that there was nothing of value to take.   
Once outside, she lightly sprayed the carpet of the hall.   
She had once been able to search more than three rooms a floor, but with the cops on the prowl for her, she had cut back. She had been warned that she should take a break altogether, until the heat -no pun intended- cooled down, but she couldn't help herself. The risk of being caught was half the fun.   
Two floors and six apartments later, she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar.   
The child had screamed quite loudly, at seeing a strange woman in her home, munching on the very last chocolate chip cookie she'd snuck out to get.   
With a start, the woman had sprinted from the room.   
She hated children, and confrontations with them were right up there with clowns.   
With a practiced movement, a match was lit and dropped. By the time the fire alarms went off, she was gone.   
  
Yoji's smile faded as the last of the fangirls left the shop.   
"It's seven on a school night," Ken complained, as he flipped the 'open' sign to 'closed.' "Don't they have homework, or something?"   
Omi rolled his eyes. "I think we're their homework."   
Yoji smiled. "I'd love to be studied by some of those girls...."   
"Yoji no baka!" Omi exclaimed, throwing a dust rag.   
"Dust with it, don't use at as a weapon," Aya reprimanded.   
"Yeah, death by dust," Ken grinned. "What a way to go."   
The front door bell made a sound as it was opened, and all four assassins turned, half expecting an attack, half expecting a late customer.   
It was Manx. She held up a disk. "Basement, boys."   
  
The clip opened with several charred bodies gracing the screen.   
A man's voice was talking, telling the five viewers about the rash of apartment building burnings. The last one hadn't been as bad as some, but it had gotten three families and a few solitary people. The rest had been evacuated before the blaze got too serious.   
A dark picture flashed onto the screen, and Weiss squinted as one, to try and decipher what they were seeing. Manx hit the pause button.   
"This is Azure Dawn. She's an amateur thief who cases buildings, then torches them. She is, as far as we can tell, white. But that could just be the camera. She only wears solid black, including a black hat that covers her hair. It is our belief that she was caught by someone in one of the apartments, which is why she ran so early, and why the building didn't burn up completely. Kritiker wants you to find her, and get rid of her. Any questions?"   
"Yeah," Yoji waved slightly. "Azure Dawn?"   
Ken snickered, and Omi stifled a giggle of his own. Aya even let himself crack, a brief smirk crossing his face.   
Manx smiled. "She picked it herself. She has a strange sense of humor."   
"Evidently," Yoji muttered.   
Manx raised an eyebrow at the group in front of her. "Will you take it?"   
"Is she over eighteen?" Yoji retorted.   
"Yes," was the reply.   
"I'm in," Yoji said immediately.   
"Of course you are," Ken sneered.   
"I'm in," Omi interrupted.   
"Me, too," Aya nodded.   
Ken sighed. "Fine. I'll do it."   
  
Two days later found them staking out a building that Omi had pegged as a possible target.   
"Look at the pattern," he pointed out once again, to a skeptical Aya. "She hits here, then here, then here. The only building out of order is this one," he pointed at the large corporate building. "And this was the first one burnt, so maybe she hadn't picked out a pattern, yet."   
"Yes, ladies and gents," Yoji said expressively, "She picks out buildings to burn like other people pick out curtains!"   
"Shut up, Balinese," Aya snapped.   
"Sir, yes sir!" the blond grinned, saluting the redhead.   
"Be serious, baka," Ken muttered, pushing slightly at Yoji. "She might already be here."   
"Let's split up," Aya commanded. "Each take a floor. Balinese, stay here."   
"Gee, thanks," the taller man rolled his eyes.   
He watched his teammates disappear into the dark building, shivering slightly at the brief image of a mouth swallowing them up.   
Sitting on the edge of the building, Yoji watched a red plane light blinking in the clear sky. Then he watched several cats fight over something several roof's away. He listened to his teammates for a bit, then he watched as another cat walked the edge of the building across from him.   
He smiled slightly when the cat turned to stare at him, but frowned when he saw smoke coming from a window below. Leaning over the edge, Yoji saw flames quietly licking from an open window.   
"Shit! Guys, we have problems. It's not this building, it's the one next to this one! Get over there!"   
He yelled the floor the flames were coming from, before letting his wire wrap around the large pipe on the roof. Sliding down the wall, Yoji peered into the window across from him.   
He couldn't see anybody moving around, and he sincerely hoped nobody was home.   
Sliding to the ground, he ran into Ken, who had a slightly worried look on his face.   
"The alarms have already gone off inside," Ken announced. "And Omi called the fire station, to boot. She's gone."   
Yoji grimaced. "Does this put us back on square one?" he asked the brunette, who shrugged.   
"Most probably. Or maybe Omi just slipped on the pattern."   
Yoji gave Ken a Look.   
"Yeah, stupid idea, huh?" Ken rolled his eyes. "Let's go."   
  
They met up with Aya and Omi at the car, and the redhead drove them home in silence.   
Nobody could tell if he was pissed at Omi for picking the wrong building or pissed at losing the target, but nobody spoke, for fear of catching that anger.   
  
The next morning, Yoji found Omi scouring over a map, a fresh red dot on the recently torched building.   
"She broke the pattern," the boy said, when the blond entered the kitchen. "But only by one building. That doesn't make sense."   
"She's female. Who can understand them?"   
"Evidently *you* can," Ken muttered, grabbing a cup from a cupboard and filling it with coffee.   
Yoji grinned.   
"Maybe she didn't realize she was breaking the pattern," Omi continued, ignoring the others behind him.   
Aya entered silently, grabbing his own cup of coffee before sitting across from Omi.   
"Wait, how old is your map, Omi?" Yoji said all of a sudden, interrupting the argument he and Ken were building up to.   
"I bought it at the 24-hour market this morning. And it says it was printed in May. Why?"   
"I don't know, maybe her map's older, or something."   
"Which would also make her blind as a bat, not to miss the building," Ken rolled his eyes.   
"It was a theory!" Yoji snapped.   
"Some private detective," Ken snorted.   
"I'm gonna open shop."   
Yoji left them, the steam from his coffee wafting behind him.   
Omi frowned. "What's wrong with him?" he asked Ken.   
"I have no idea," the soccer player replied. "He's been edgy for days. I think it's about Neu, but I'm not really sure."   
"So she broke pattern, but only by one building?" Aya questioned, repeating Omi's earlier comment and putting the group on track in one fell swoop. "Why?"   
"I don't know. We can try again, tonight, but her strikes have also been in a pattern. She won't do anything for another two weeks."   
"Are you sure about that?" Aya asked.   
"No. She might break pattern for this, too."   
"Where does her family live?" Ken asked. "Was there anything in the information Manx gave us?"   
"No," Omi shook his head. "'Azure Dawn' is all we got, and it's fake."   
"This is gonna be fun," the brunette muttered dryly. "I'm gonna go help Yoji."   
  
For five days, Weiss staked buildings, jumping over rooftops and searching buildings all over town, with no success. The sixth night, they took a break, and cursed themselves that morning, as they stared at the paper.   
Another building had burned, and none of the tenants had gotten out alive. And it had fit the pattern.   
With a rainstorm pouring down outside, and the foul tempers rising inside, combined with the obsessive fangirls who had discovered how to use umbrellas, it wasn't a good day.   
  
The storm lasted for three days, and by the end of it, most of the city was sick of anything wet.   
"Ah, sunshine!" Ken exclaimed, standing on the sidewalk and opening his arms. Omi laughed at the brunette's antics as he set out the plants for that day.   
"It hasn't been that long, Ken-kun."   
"No, it's been longer!"   
Of course, with the sunshine and good cheer came more girls than ever. Those who hadn't made it to the flower shop during the shower came in droves, filling the Koneko to the rafters with laughter and cooing and drooling and fawning.   
And, as always, Weiss was on the job, broken into two teams, to cover the two possible buildings where the pyro would strike next.   
On the third night, Yoji declined with a slight shake of the head and a scrap of paper with a number on it.   
"Haven't had a date in ages," he grinned. "And besides, Omi's little pattern says that she won't strike again until next week."   
"You know, she's broken patterns before," Ken retorted.   
"Yeah. And if it's tonight you have my pager number."   
"It *will* be turned on, won't it?" Aya asked quietly.   
Yoji grinned. "Maybe."   
  
Leaning against an errant chimney the next night, Yoji listened in on his teammates softly talking. Omi had carefully scoured over every scrap of evidence he'd gotten from the fires, and finally concluded that, yes, this building fit the pattern. So they'd combed the area, and spread out, each of them taking two floors, with Yoji once again on the roof. He was convinced that Aya, lovely tactician that he was, was trying to kill him by making him stay outside during the winter.**   
He was just about to patrol the roof again, when Ken interrupted all their quiet patrolling.   
"Abyssinian, she's heading your way, and she's wounded, bleeding all over the place. Somebody must have gotten to her first."   
"How do you know it's her?" Yoji asked, in synch with Omi's "I didn't hear a shot. Are you sure?"   
"It was a small female dressed entirely in black, with something large on her back," Ken retorted. "I'm gonna follow her up the stairwell."   
There was the soft sound of a door opening, then slowly being closed. Yoji waited. With Aya below him, and Ken and Omi below Aya, they had the woman cornered. Unless she went out an apartment window.   
Just as Yoji was about to enter the building, Ken's voice came back on the air. "Oh, shit. Guys, I hate to tell you this. She isn't bleeding. This is gas!"   
"And you couldn't smell that?" Aya demanded, just as Omi responded, "It's down here, too."   
"Sounds like an insurance policy," Yoji commented. "She leaks the stuff, and if somebody catches her before she's ready, poof! They're on fire, and she's gone. She's smart, I'll give her that."   
"But what do we *do* about her?" Ken asked.   
"We deal with her in the Weiss way," was Aya's response.   
There was a general agreement, as Yoji heard Aya's katana being unsheathed.   
"Hi there, Azure" came Ken's voice. There was a gasp, not from any of Weiss, and then Ken yelled something in surprise.   
"Siberian?" came Omi's voice.   
"What happened?" Aya and Yoji demanded.   
"Shit....she sprayed me with gasoline!"   
"Which way was she headed?" Aya demanded.   
"Up."   
Yoji cursed softly. They had already checked out the building, and found that it wasn't even close to being up to standards. There was one long fire escape going past all apartment windows, but the elevator didn't have a maintenance opening(and was out of service, anyway), the stairwells were all dark and great places to hide, and there were only three entrances to the building, besides windows: Front door, back door and roof door.   
And with Aya covering the top two floors, and Yoji on the roof, the only way she could escape would be by exiting the stairwell and escaping from a window, which would take up more time than she had.   
Opening the roof door, Yoji waited. He heard Aya say something, then he heard a loud grunt.   
"Abyssinian?" he inquired.   
"She hit me with whatever the hell she's got in her hands," Aya hissed into the earphone.   
"You were taken out by a woman with a mystery weapon?"   
Yoji couldn't keep the grin out of his voice, let alone off his face.   
"Shut up, Balinese. She's heading your way."   
"I got it."   
"You got that right!"   
Yoji turned in surprise, to be broadsided by something hard. Landing a few feet away, he stumbled to his feet and turned, wire shooting out automatically, aimed for the already running woman.   
It wrapped around her arms tightly, and he tugged gently, using just enough power to her towards him.   
'But not to close,' he told himself.   
"Let me go!" she yelled.   
"No."   
He heard a small 'pop!' and the smell of gasoline permeated the air.   
"Let me go!" she repeated   
"You deserve to die. Do you know that?" Yoji growled, shaking her slightly. "You killed all those innocent people, all those women and children, so you could get a few trinkets! You burned them alive!"   
"So kill me," she grinned. "That's what you came here to do, wasn't it?"   
"I don't hurt women," he snarled. "Even ones like you. I've hurt too many."   
"Balinese, just do it!" Ken yelled into their headphones. "Abyssinian's hurt too badly to do it, and Bombay and I have to help him get out."   
Yoji closed his eyes and cursed, loudly.   
"Aw, what's the matter?" the woman cooed. "Can't hurt a woman? Afraid of touching me? What?"   
"I...I can't." His head dropped. This was too reminiscent of the past.   
"If you let me go, I'll do this again," she taunted. "You'll have another chance to get at me. Only now, I'll know you'll be there."   
There was a brief flare of light, and Yoji's head shot up, to stare at her.   
The match light framed her face in a warm glow, softening her glaring features. A small patch of brown hair was sticking out from underneath the hat, and her dark eyes were narrowed.   
"I'll drop it, I swear I will."   
"Would you really kill yourself?" Yoji asked, stalling now. He only had his wire, and if he tightened it, she would drop the match anyway.   
"If nothing else, the roof will burn," she smiled sweetly, ignoring his question. "But then, the door to the access building is open, isn't it?"   
Yoji narrowed his eyes.   
"Now, will you risk this building and all of its people, just for me?"   
After a second, Yoji let the wire drop, releasing her hands.   
"Okay. You win. Just put out the match."   
There was no response, no movement, from the woman, and Yoji glanced at her. An arrow was sticking of her chest. Feeling panic rise in his own chest, he raced for the falling body. For the match.   
"No!"   
He felt Ken's arms surround him.   
"Yoji, it's done!"   
"The match!"   
It hit with a rush of air, and Yoji felt Ken's arms tighten even more.   
Turning, Yoji grabbed Ken's arm and pulled the wide-eyed brunette toward the edge of the roof. Wrapping the wire around a pole, he grabbed Ken, who was shaking so badly it was hard to keep a hold on him.   
"Ken!"   
Brown eyes were fixed on red-orange flames, wide with terror.   
"Ken!"   
His breathing was erratic, his chest rising and falling rapidly.   
"Aw, fuck it," Yoji grimaced. Grabbing the brunette he dropped from the roof, swinging so that it wouldn't slack and rip his arm of when pulled taut.   
"Siberian, Balinese? Where are you?" Omi sounded panicked, and Yoji smiled slightly. The boy was always worried.   
"We're on the side of the building. Did you call the fire station?"   
"Yes. I also closed the roof door. What happened after I got her?"   
Yoji sighed. "She dropped the match when you shot her, kiddo. And Ken panicked."   
"Why?"   
Aya sounded like always, pissed off, and Yoji grinned. The woman hadn't hit him as hard as they'd thought; apparently it had just been shock.   
"Kase," Omi whispered in realization, making Ken jerk backward.   
"He still has his headset on, guys," Yoji snapped. "Kenken? Come on. Let's go home."   
  
"I thought I'd find you up here."   
Yoji half-turned to watch Ken climb up onto the roof.   
"Yo," he replied softly. "Want a drag?" he asked, holding up the joint.   
Ken shook his head. "I'm trying to quit, you know," he said with a straight face.   
Yoji let out a short laugh. "So, what brings you here?"   
"I came to see if you're gonna be okay."   
"I should be asking you that," Yoji responded. "You're the one who froze."   
Ken exhaled softly as he sat, leaning back on the roof. "I know. And I'll bet Aya's pissed at me, but..."   
Yoji waited for a second, before prompting, "But?"   
"For a second there, it was like the warehouse fire. And all I could do was freeze. Everything went out of my head."   
Yoji leaned back as well, letting his eyes droop.   
"Are *you* gonna be okay?" Ken finally asked.   
Yoji shrugged. "I've had worse shit happen to me."   
Ken was silent for a moment, than he began hesitantly. "When...when Azure died, what were you thinking?"   
Yoji closed his eyes completely, and a petite face appeared. "I was thinking that it was happening again," he finally murmured. "Just like it always does. I can never win when assignments have women in them. Even if we do succeed in the mission, I always lose."   
Ken bit his lip, not sure of what to say. He knew a hug and a comforting word would have helped him, but Yoji was different. 'Ah, screw it,' he decided.   
"Yoji?"   
"Hm?"   
"Do...Do you want a hug, or something?"   
There was silence, then a low chuckle. "Well, actually, I was thinking of a stiff drink, but sure, a hug'll do."   
They sat up, and with a little awkwardness, managed to wrap their arms around each other. Ken laid his head on Yoji's and crooned softly, not noticing when the tears in his eyes spilled over into Yoji's hair.   
  
*owari*   
  
* laughs Every time someone uses this phrase, I always think of the 'Spaceballs' scene, when they're 'combing the desert.'   
**Damned if I know how long the tv show is. And damned if I know when Neu was killed. *shrugs* poetic license.


End file.
